Thousands of airbags under recall in Alabama

By John Huddleston| September 5, 2019 at 7:23 PM CDT - Updated September 8 at 5:42 PM

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - There are reportedly thousands of cars on Alabama roadways that possibly have defective airbags.

“The last couple of years there has been a problem with the airbags that contained some shrapnel in them. So, if your airbag gets deployed it’s throwing shrapnel around the car,” said Clay Ingram, AAA Alabama.

In fact, there have been over a dozen people killed in the United States and over 300 more seriously injured because of the problems.

Many more people are in cars that are under recall and haven’t been repaired.

“We have recently learned that 22% of the cars on the road, in Alabama, are subject to this recall and have not been addressed. That’s almost one in four cars out there that have this problem, have this issue,” said Ingram.

That issue, dates back to the Takata airbag safety recall, which was the largest and most complex in U.S. history.

It affected tens of millions of vehicles from 19 different manufacturers.

“Get it swapped out because even a very minor accident can cause these airbags to deploy,” said Ingram.

So why aren’t people getting it done? Ingram says some might not know.

“Especially when cars change hands a couple of times, you can kind of get lost in the shuffle. So, it’s up to each person to check their own vehicle," he said.